Al-Zaytuna Mosque, Tunis. Christopher Rose, Flickr/Creative Commons
Source: World Watch Monitor, January 20, 2014
Three years after the “Arab Spring” started in Tunisia, the country’s National Constituent Assembly is close to passing a new constitution which rejects Islam as the “main source of law,” but states it is the State’s duty to “protect the sacred.”
The new constitution, which has taken two years to conclude, comes almost three years to the day since the fall of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, itself 10 days after the death of a Tunisian vegetable seller which began the movement that would sweep across North Africa and into the Middle East.
Since the revolution of 2011, the question of whether the State would be seen as the “protector of the sacred” has caused great controversy between the moderate Islamist party which came to power after the first post-Ben Ali general election and the broadly secular opposition.
As well as being the “protector of the sacred,” the constitution appoints the State as “guarantor of religion” and “guarantor of freedom of conscience” and promises the “neutrality of places of worship in relation to political manipulation.”
» Read full story, which discussing reactions to these decisions.
» For a long view on the Arab Spring, hear seasoned diplomat and ambassador Marwan Muasher speak at Yale on The Second Arab Awakening and the Battle for Pluralism. Well worth your 30 minutes. Jump to 6:30 where he begins (YouTube).